News from the September 2003 Mouth.

SUPREME NEW THREAT TO ADA

States have what is called “sovereign immunity” from lawsuits by their citizens. So if you want to sue your state—except in the case of civil rights laws—you need the state’s permission first. Now the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of Tennessee v. Lane and Jones, an ADA case based on the sovereign immunity of states.

Facts of the case: George Lane uses a wheelchair and was summoned to court in 1996 on a traffic charge. The courthouse was and is inaccessible. Lane crawled up the steps. On his next visit to the same court, he let the judge know he was downstairs. The judge had him arrested for failure to appear.

Beverly Jones, a court reporter, uses a wheelchair too. She couldn’t get into four different county courthouses where she’d been hired to record proceedings. She investigated and, finding 23 Tennessee courts inaccessible, requested modifications in all. Not one court complied.

Both parties are suing the state, asking monetary damages under Title II of the ADA. The U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit have both ruled that the case could go forward. Tennessee appealed those decisions to the Supreme Court. On June 23, the Court agreed to hear the case, in October. Justice Antonin Scalia warned, in his separate opinion in the 1999 Olmstead case, that the states in that case had not asked the Court to rule on sovereign immunity. He left the door open on that, inviting states to come in.

Since every time the ADA goes before today’s ultra-conservative Supreme Court, we’re likely to lose, Tennessee advocates better step up to the plate. Their job, to persuade their state attorney general, Paul Summers, to withdraw the case, is one that ADAPT accomplished with more than a dozen states in Olmstead and a coalition of California advocates accomplished with the Hason case.

Are our rights civil rights? This is the Court that will decide.

SPINA BIFIDA 'NOT A DISABILITY'

In another Tennessee case, federal judge R. Allan Edgar told nine-year-old Tiffany Masters, who has spina bifida, she won’t be allowed keep a service animal. He ruled that “Tiffany does not have a disability as defined by the ADA.”

NO SCHOOL LEFT BEHIND

Under Alleged President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” law, states must administer standardized math and reading tests to all public school students and sanction schools where students lag state standards.

However. The law allows states to define their own standards for pass and fail. States like Texas and Michigan, not wishing to sanction their schools and lose federal education dollars, simply lowered their standards. Only 216 Michigan schools flunked recently, compared to 1,513 before the state’s little adjustment.

There. All better.

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